I have a page on my site with some of my favorite new sites that are showing up on the web. These are not my sites, but they are the kinds of things that I like in a website. There are different reasons that I picked these sites, they all look good, and are clear and easy to use. They don’t use Flash at all or use it only when necessary and never for navigation. The graphics are good, but not overpowering. Sometimes I just like a picture or the name. Some of them are not in english and I still know what they are about.
The newest one is called Dubai-Online. It has a very classy look, not too cluttered with just a splash of Flash for effect, not navigation.
It’s very easy to see what this site is about. The navigation is clear, easy to find and use.
“Many people have given up e-mail marketing because the filters that almost everyone uses now makes it almost impossible for their mail to get through.” I had a customer tell me that not too long ago.
I asked them about their direct e-mail campaign and he told me that even though it cost them very little to do it, because they were doing it in-house, he didn’t feel that they were getting a good response for their effort.
I told him that while it was true that it’s getting harder these days to get his mail through, he should still not give up. I told him to send another e-mail, this time in plain text, the very next day after his next scheduled e-mailing.
Have it say…
Yesterday we sent you the newest issue of our ___ Newsletter. If you did not receive one it may have been eaten by your filters. Please visit our site to read it on line here and if you would like to receive our future mailings please put our domain _____.com on your filter’s “whitelist” to allow them to get to you.
If you do not wish to receive our mailings we would like to know that as well. Just reply to this e-mail and we will remove you from our list.
Sincerely
### #####
My customer was very pleased with the results of his next e-mail newsletter. He heard from many people who hadn’t realized that they were no longer getting his newsletters.
I also found out that he was removing the old newsletters when the new one went out. I advised him to put back up all of his back issues along with a good index for them. It allows people to catch up or for a new visitor to find out what they were missing. It also makes good content to help him in the search engines.
Here’s an interesting free idea to promote your blog. There are a few spaces left if you hurry and sign up.
The purpose of this site is to make it easier for people to get introduced to and read your blog. They will shorty be introducing a radio show that will discuss blogs on this site. You have at least five years advertising free. The clicks facility shows how many clicks your ad is generating. People will be able to read your blog by clicking on your image. Having a square will generate more readers for your blog, however, it is up to you to have content that creates comments!
I had an old computer that I wanted to donate to charity, but you hear so much these days about people being able to recover sensitive data even after it’s been erased.
So my old laptop just sat in the corner collecting dust even though I’m pretty sure there is someone who can put it to good use.
Recently I found Darik’s Boot and Nuke which is a free utility which will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect. I went to Sourceforge, downloaded it and tried it out. None of the data recovery programs that I have found anything at all to recover so I believe it works very well.
Here’s something for some fun on a Friday. (Not responsible if you get caught playing at work)
A couple of years ago I put up a personal website.
I forgot about it for quite a while and it looks kind of dated now, but there is a fun section with many classic arcade-type games like Space Invaders, Centipede, Missile Command, Asteroids, Battleship and more. Enjoy.
Jodie Coston is a freelance photographer who lives in northwestern Montana. She has exhibited her work in gallery exhibitions around the world and has won numerous international awards for her images.
Jodie has a wonderful free photography course on her website with lessons and discussions for all. It’s been available since 2004, but I just found it.
I just read the first lesson and it was very informative. I can’t wait to go to the next one. Having good pictures on your site will definitely increase it’s visitor appeal. This can help any webmaster or anyone just interested in taking better pictures.
I also invite you to visit my photos.
John Andrews wrote an interesting post on why you should use the Internet to check out your customers. It’s something that I have not considered before. This can give you some much needed information about your customers that you can use both before you actually meet them and also after they are an established customer. Having more information about your customers can help you to meet their needs better and may also save you some work and/or aggravation.
I have previously written about Lessons Learned from “Talk Like A Pirate Day”, what a great promotion that is and how something like that that can work for your business.
Now Scott Ginsberg “That Guy With The Nametag” has done it also.
For the second year in a row, Colchester, NH is celebrating Annual Nametag Day!
That’s how it starts, one city or town and they the next thing that you know you’re worldwide and getting thousands of visitors.
Here’s a very cool trick that can be used in Photoshop or “The GIMP“.
You can make your pictures appear to come right off the page. This post describes how to make it in Photoshop, but I’ve tried it and it works pretty much the same in “The GIMP“. For those of you who don’t know “The GIMP” is a free, open source version of Photoshop that I use for working with images. It’s a bit different to use that PS, but free is good.
A word of advise, before you work on any picture make a copy of it and only work on the copy. It’s pretty simple advise, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen it ignored.
I love movies. Since I started my own business I don’t get as much time as I would like to watch them, but since I signed up for Blockbuster’s mail order deal I get to see more. So every Weekend I will recommend a movie or two. Do with it what you will.
Her Minor Thing is a new release on DVD. It is a very cute story about a girl who’s boyfriend, a TV reporter, accidently tells the whole city that she is a virgin. The story has some funny twists and if you’re in the mood for a fun romantic comedy this is a good chioce.
